Companies to assess facilities at Inland Lakes

Friday

Dec 20, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Kortny Hahn

Inland Lakes Schools has reviewed applications and references and selected Integrated Designs, Inc., for architectural services to assess the school district's physical facilities.
Superintendent Fred Osborn said there were a number of companies interested in analyzing the needed repairs and improvements in district buildings and in presenting a cost estimate to the board of education.
“I think we went through a good process,” Osborn said.
The school board also chose to hire R.C. Hendrick’s and Son, Inc., for construction management services for the facilities assessment. The company will aid in the creation of the list of improvements and updates needed.
Osborn said the two companies will do a walk-through of the buildings during Christmas break, when there aren’t people in the building.
“They will go into every nook and cranny and put together a list of what needs to be done,” Osborn said. “Things will now be moving forward.”
The companies will develop a long- and short-term list. It will then be up to the school board of education to determine how it will go about fixing the problems.
Board member Carolyn Sackett asked what the initial walk-through and resulting lists bonded the school to financially.
“There is no cost up front,” Osborn responded.
However, if something comes up while the list is being compiled that needs to be fixed immediately, Osborn said the board could apply for grants or other funding to pay for the repairs.
Also at the meeting, Osborn told the board Inland Lakes Schools has been chosen as part of a field test for a new version of standardized testing, which will replace the MEAP tests.
He said the MEAPs are more of a static test, and the new Smart Balance tests are all done on the computer.
Teachers will be able to determine on which sections of the test the students are excelling, and adjust to challenge the student more in appropriate areas.
The test can also give feedback to the teachers in areas in which the student is struggling.
Osborn reported that the school district is trying to find a way to connect the feed from security cameras to the local police.
At this time, cameras and DVRs are unable to go online, which makes the video feed-sharing impossible.
Osborn said fixing this problem can be a long, costly process but can be fixed several different ways, including the purchasing of a new operating system.
However, this would require the purchase of licenses for each machine, which would get costly.
“The current system was in place when I got here, four years ago,” Osborn said. “A lot has changed in four years.”
The school will continue to look into options for fixing this problem.